This is just a quick announcement to let you know that I published a new short story called Father McMahon’s Confession. It’s a horror/suspense story about a priest who must prepare for the arrival of a demon. It’s really short – about 1100 words (around 4 pages) and is currently available as an e-book on Amazon for 99 cents. (It will be available on other retailers shortly.)

If you read it and like it, consider leaving a review, which would be really helpful (on Amazon and/or any other place you might leave a book review). Thanks a lot.

Father McMahon has precisely fifteen minutes.

That’s when the demon will come.

He must gather up all his strength, along with the most powerful holy instruments, in order to confront it. And when it arrives, he will face his most important test yet.

“Even the most primitive societies have an innate respect for the insane,” the Motorcycle Boy answered.

From Rumble Fish, by S. E. Hinton

Daydreaming…ahhh. The practice of putting your head up in the clouds when you’re supposed to be keeping your feet on the ground.

We all do it. Some of us are pros, but some of us may need a little extra help with our zoning out. For those in the latter group, here are a few simple steps:

1. Choose a time and place where you are supposed to be doing something else

The number one pleasure of daydreaming is the fact that you are supposed to be doing something else while you do it. Something more practical, no doubt.

Really, daydreaming is just a very specific form of procrastination. But the benefits of daydreaming are that you don’t need any equipment other than your own imagination and you can do it without anyone realizing you are doing it.

Maybe you’re in a meeting, maybe you’re in a classroom (possibly you’re the teacher!), maybe you’re listening to a boring lecture, but no matter where you are or who you’re with, daydreaming is a delicious possibility.

2. Pick a subject that fascinates you endlessly

Have a favorite TV show or book that you can’t get off your mind? Is there someone special you’ve been thinking about? Maybe you enjoy a “choose your own adventure”-type daydream. Put yourself into your dream career – spy, pop star, world leader – and go there. But only in your mind.

When your meeting is finished and you go back to your desk at your ordinary job, remember what it felt like to be on stage in front of thousands of people, rapping the latest hit song. Or how it felt to escape from the bad guys across those rooftops in a major world city. Remember when you almost fell?

Insert yourself into that TV show or book you’ve been thinking about. Make up a new character for yourself or embody one that you already love. How does the story change with you there?

Has your crush noticed you yet? Is that even possible? Or are they just an image you saw somewhere? Either way, form them in your mind and interact with them. That’s a whole lot better than paying attention to those power point slides.

3. Come back to Earth

So, the thing about daydreaming is that you eventually do have to put your feet on the ground, or risk becoming a permanent space cadet.

Living as a powerful world leader is wonderful in your mind, but eventually you do have to live your real life and interact with the real people you know, as easy or as difficult as that may be. But keeping your feet on the ground (at least for a bit) isn’t so bad, and, in fact, feels pretty good.

You’ve gotta have a solid foundation for all that mind travel, so you can have a platinum selling album and a real, solid life as well.

Fantasies are important because they let us know what may be possible, or what our desires are (maybe in a symbolic form), but all of us live in reality, and we must remember that.

To get your dreams into reality, you have to make them real.

Bonus Step: 4. Be careful of blurring the line between reality and fantasy

Your daydreams are your daydreams and your life is your life. Remember that.

“Men and women, they were beautiful and wild, all a little violent under their pleasant ways and only a little tamed.”

From Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

This is just a quick announcement to let you know that I published a new short story last week called Ghost Coach. It’s a contemporary, paranormal story about a woman who coaches a ghost on how to scare people. It’s about 3500 words long (around 14 pages according to Amazon) and is available as an e-book on Amazon for 99 cents.

If you read it and like it, consider leaving a review, which would be really helpful (on Amazon and/or any other place you might leave a book review). Thanks a lot.

Sarah hasn’t been sleeping well. Turns out, she has a ghost in her house. But this ghost has a problem.

I consider myself to be a Highly Sensitive Person (a term coined by psychologist Elaine Aron), and I loved the way this image listed out all of the qualities that HSPs possess – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Anyway, if you are an HSP or know some HSPs, I thought you might be interested.

“If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”

Mark Twain

This is just a quick post to let you know that I’m having a short story featured today on Every Day Fiction, which is an online magazine that “specializes in bringing you fine fiction in bite-sized doses.”

The story is called Wild Ride and is about a bored carnie. Check it out and let me know what you think.

And in other short fiction news, I’ve started a new blog on Tumblr specifically for my very short – or flash – fiction. The plan is to post most of my flash fiction pieces there (as long as I’m able).

When I was a teenager and in the process of deciding what college I wanted to go to, I would regularly receive brochures in the mail from different colleges and universities.

Depending on the college, they would send out information about academic programs and campus life, etc, etc. I loved to look through these and imagine myself two or three years in the future living the life that was being described to me in these mailed materials.

One college in particular became my first choice early on. I remember looking through the beautiful – almost magazine-like – brochure that they sent and I could see myself in this place.

It was located in a smallish college town, about a day’s drive from my house, with tree-lined streets (the pictures showed beautiful Fall leaves too – my favorite) that indicated a quaint, but interesting, life, with lots to do, but not too much.

I thought it was perfect, and when I went out on my first round of college visits it was the first place I wanted to go.

The summer before my senior year of high school, my family set out for this town so I could tour the campus and meet with an admissions officer, and all that stuff you do when you’re picking a college.

The drive was long, but not tremendously so, but as we got farther and farther away from home, I began to wonder what it would actually be like living this far away for most of the year. Nonetheless, the image of myself at this college and in this town was still strong and I was convinced most of the way there that this is where I would be for my college years. Autumn-tree lined streets and all.

When we finally pulled into town and I saw the college for the first time, my immediate thought was:

“No, definitely not.”

The reality hit me very hard. The college had a very nondescript look to it, nothing grabbed me about it at all, and as we went on a tour and met with an admissions officer my intuition was giving me a very simple response.

“No.”

If I had been savvier at the time, I would have thought:

“Wow, they have a great marketing department.”

We stayed for a day or two, and everything I saw confirmed my initial gut feeling. The town was OK, at best, and, as I learned, the climate in this place was less than ideal for me. The college was blah, and I was a little farther away than I wanted to be from home, which I hadn’t realized until driving and arriving there.

The picture that I had concocted in my mind of this place (based on the brochure) was my own fantasy of living on my own and college life. Thank God I went and visited, so that I could see that this place was no fantasy. It was jarring to let the fantasy crumble, but when I did, I made room for reality.

This same scenario has happened to me again and again throughout life, just in different circumstances. It happened when I was buying a house. It’s happened (time and time again) while dating and in relationships.

The fantasy of something can be so powerful and so intense, but reality always comes crashing through. If not at the very beginning, then eventually.